To use the Bible intelligently and profitably, it’s important to realize that it’s a historical library—one containing many different books, one written by a variety of authors who lived in diverse eras and wrote with diverse aims and points of view. Over twelve centuries lie between Moses and Paul, and each century contributed to the gradually growing records of God’s revelation of his character and will in the experiences, hearts, and minds of men.
The great service of modern biblical scholarship has been to distinguish and restore the older records to their original form—and to make it possible again to study the heroic characters and stirring events in Israel’s history as recorded by the earliest historians. The Historical Bible includes practically all the peerless narratives that have commanded the attention, and molded the faith and morals, of humanity.
The aim of The Historical Bible is to make this old, vital record available for popular reading and study. It aims to arrange—and to combine with the earliest historical record—the most important songs, prophetic addresses, laws, psalms, proverbs, and epistles, so that the biblical writers might present in their own language the literature, history, and religious beliefs of each succeeding age. This arrangement makes it possible to study the character, work, and message of the great prophets, sages, or apostles—in full light of the conditions in which they lived and labored.
Each section of the biblical text includes brief historical, geographical, and archeological notes: the background necessary for a complete understanding of the biblical records. The idea is to draw attention to the biblical text itself and to offer the reader the essential facts for its full understanding and appreciation. For each volume, a selected group of questions, with references for further study in connection with each section, are given in an appendix.
